Who fancies joining in this year's Fantasy Fellrunning competition?
The rules are much the same as last year:

You're in the Shoulder of Mutton surrounded by fellow runners and you've just remembered that you need to put together a team of four runners for the 2010 championship races. At least one of the four runners has to be a man and at least one has to be a woman.

You turn out your pockets and you've got enough cash for a few pints of Black Sheep, with which to bribe your way to a team. Some runners take several pints before they can be persuaded to join your team, others are yours for a single swift pint.

There are 3 leagues:

The top league is the "Timothy Sheep Daleside league" which will comprise teams from the top managers of last year:
Nearlyhopeless, Weetabix Power, PaulJonesforEngland, Lost in the Clouds, Multiterrainer, Another Team, Samt, GeoffB, BillJ, Blue Wkd, Cole Dale and Inspector Gadget.
The TSD teams will each have 15 pints with which to select a team.

Then there is the "Boddington-Smith league" for the next tier of managers:
Mapper, Maloni, Roger Rabbit, Leeds Rhino, SteveS, Feet in the Cowclaps, Stagger, Also Ran, Jellybaby, Fnstein, Saints Lad, Bad Magners, Derby Tup, Chevinbytorchlight, NirvanaBliss, Socks, Dew Claw Lassalle, So Wood and Tomcee.
The BS teams will each have 14 pints with which to select a team.

Finally the "Kaliber league" will comprise teams from these managers:
Dominion, Bo Peep, Al Fowler, Donkarlo, Ady in Accy, BGSec, Chris Smale, Witton Park, Fellgazelle, TheHell I Will, Mr1470, Penguin - plus anyone who joins the game this year.
The K teams will each have 13 pints with which to select a team.

At the end of the year there will be promotion and demotion between the leagues.

From the date that you select them, your runners score points at every race in the English or British championships:
1 point just for finishing the race;
20 points for the 1st man, down to 1 point for the 20th man;
20 points for the 1st lady, down to 1 point for the 20th lady;
8 points for the 1st male vet, down to 1 point for the 8th male vet;
8 points for the 1st lady vet, down to 1 point for the 8th lady vet;
Points are cumulative.

In addition, your runners will score points at the Lakeland Classics and also (as my bit of shameless promotion!) the Midsummer Madness weekend (*).
These additional races don't score as many points as the national championships, though:
1 point just for finishing the race;
10 points for the 1st man, down to 1 point for the 10th man;
10 points for the 1st lady, down to 1 point for the 10th lady;
4 points for the 1st male vet, down to 1 point for the 4th male vet;
4 points for the 1st lady vet, down to 1 point for the 4th lady vet;

During the year you can make 2 substitutions - either swap 2 of your runners for another pair who cost the same total number of pints, or twice swap one of your runners for another one of the same pintage.
A new rule: anyone who enters a team in the competition after the first race will only be allowed one substitution during the year.

There will also be a cup-style knockout competition for all teams, like last year.

So post your team of four to this thread, with a team name.

My next post will list the runners in the pub and how many pints they'll cost you.

(*) Midsummer Madness: the weekend counts as a single race for FF points, with everyone's best result from the weekend in one combined list, whether they do one race, two races or all three.